and when we go through tough times, when we make big decisions as a country, necessarily stirs passions, stirs up controversy. that won't change after tonight. and it shouldn't. these arguments we have are a mark of our liberty. we can never forget that as we speak, people in distant nations are risking their lives right now just for a chance to argue about the issues that matter, the chance to cast their ballots like we did today. but despite all our differences, most of us share certain hopes for america's future. >> in the end it all came down to math. that's what we really were

talking about the last couple of days. would the math add up for the president to 270? john berman has a closer look at that for us. hey, john. thank you, soledad. a lot of people said the president couldn't do this again as in 2008 he captured lightning in a bottle, but there are signs within the exit polls coming in tonight that indicate the so-called obama coalition held firm. i'm going to talk to cnn's christine romans at the magic wall for more on that. >> okay, let's look at it. how did he do in 2012, the exit polls. the youth vote, 33 to 44-year-olds, solidly in the president's corner. then mitt romney got strength, 51% of 51 to 64-year-olds. for the people 65 and older, 56% to 44%. look at the youth vote, 60% of people ages 18 to 29 went for mitt romney. this was a good turnout for the

president. >> the youth vote grew in terms of the overall vote from 2008, which is a big deal. >> this is what 2008 looked like for the president. the president took all three of the categories. john mccain did well in 65 and older. let's move to the other part of the coalition that the president has built. 72% of voters were white. of those 59 -- look at the 29-point lead from romney among white voters, but that didn't matter and here's why. the president had solid support from african-americans and the latino vote was 10%. double digits for the first time in history for latinos. 71% of latino voters chose the president. >> a lot of questions about whether to turn out the african-american vote. the turnout was exactly the same as four years ago and the latino vote growing and the president running up huge margins. >> that's the 2008 vote. this is the 2008 vote with the

latino 9% this time around. this time 10% for the first time of history. >> that's the first time it held and grew. governor romney in his son kegs speech said it was time for both parties to come together. here's a little bit of what he said. >> and we looked at democrats and republicans in government of all levels to put the people before the politics. i believe in america. i believe in the people of america. [ cheers and applause ] and i ran for office because i'm concerned about america. this election is over, but our principles endure. i believe that the principles upon which this nation was

founded are the only sure guide to resurgent economy and to a new greatness. >> let's open it up to our panel. you know what was interesting, you heard the governor talk about coming together. president obama in his victory speech talked about unity and coming together. when you actually go to the exit polls you see one party really got a big handle on the white vote and you see another party really got another big handle on the minority vote. and that seems to work against the idea of coming together and unity, doesn't it? >> and you see it in the way the states were decided. virginia by two, ohio by four. even the states that the president won are very closely divided. we are a very closely divided nation and that's why this compromise they must engage in is so hard to find. >> that's why it is required, because the exit polls and the results show we are divided. we have to figure out how unite to get things done. >> well, we'll see if people

will reward that. when i worked for president clinton, the house of representatives impeached him but they worked with him. and newt kept his house majority and clinton kept his presidency. so we the people were awarded that. we have not been rewarding compromise lately. let's see, i believe if you get president obama, speaker boehner and majority leader reed in a deal, they can cut a deal to be good for the country to move us forward. the question is would we reward principle compromise like in the '90s. i don't know. >> that brings us back to the original question are you aiming for a primary or a general election? because it seem that is and i think governor romney is to some degree exhibit a of that. you have to play both sides and sometimes -- i think for latinos on it, they talked about the wall and the deportation. those things are hard to take back and that was reflected in the numbers we saw for latino

voters. >> i said earlier tonight, much, much earlier. >> that was yesterday. >> i thought governor romney had lost the latino vote in the republican primary. that far ago and he never quite made it up. you know what the tragic part of it is? i think if mitt romney would have been elected, he would have been working to finding a solution. he didn't need to go there. didn't he need to see those things on the dream act? >> maybe the answer is yes, you did, in order to get through the primary. did you to get through the primary for republicans? >> to beat rick perry, the guy who said, oops. >> it is impossible to go back and unwind it and rewind it. who knows what influenced what moment at what period in time. who knows. i just look how george bush handled it. you have to say what you feel. and gorge just said family values don't stop at the real

ground. that human statement, he meant what he said, he lives there. many people hear him and see him differently because he understood what they were going through. >> john mccain, a war hero who talked about going to the vietnam wall and seeing names of heroes who are latino -- >> there are also -- there's pragmatic math because we know in 2008 it was 9%, this year it was 10%. we know the demographics -- >> you are going to scare these two white men. >> i am not here to scare. i am just here to say that -- >> soledad, we have them surrounded but we come in peace. >> the hungarians, we don't even show up. >> in all seriousness, if the trend continues to go the way it is, and it will, you hope to win

elections. >> we are in really dizzying demographic change and president obama has been nimble enough to see that and eliminate it, even though he doesn't speak a word of spanish. when roosevelt elected him, the country was 95% white. 60 years later clinton. the voting rights, it dropped to 88 in 60 years. that's how much change we had. seven points. guess what? clinton to obama, only 16 years. from 88 down to 74% white. twice the change of pace in only 16 years as the previous 60. and it is not stopping. and the republicans, like these two who are smart who know this and get this, president bush and senator mccain did and mitt romney took them in the wrong direction. >> now that the election is over and other republican leaders don't have to defer to what is going on with the presidential elections, i think there's going to be space and room for other

republican leaders to -- thank you for the subtle cue, ana, we appreciate that. >> just so you know, i have only been saving this for 20 years. >> but you think it is an opportunity. >> in a republican primary, i'm guessing three years from now when the next primary is hard to do, but when there are five or six candidates and one of them is running on immigration reform. they carve up those who are moderate. we have the final race for the presidency but races in the senate are still nail-biters. we'll take a close look at the races still to close to call and the power on the hill. stay with us. >> we are an american family and we rise or fall together as one nation and as one people. when back pain slows you down,

trust icy hot for powerful relief. [ male announcer ] the icy hot patch. goes on icy to dull pain, hot to relax it away. so you're back to full speed. [ male announcer ] icy hot. power past pain. welcome back, everybody. you're looking at people celebrating at the obama headquarters there. they are celebrating president obama with four more years in office. you can see from the map that 303 electoral votes to 270 needed to win. the state of florida in yellow has not projected yet.

the president delivered a speech all about unity. a victory speech he said, we are an american family and we rise and fall together as one nation. and he said americans' best is yet to come. democrats retain control of the senate, republicans retain control of the house. we'll take a look now at more of the math there. john? the math adds up to a whole lot of the same, soledad. in the house of representatives the republicans will maintain the balance of power right there. they will control the house and in the senate it is the democrats who will control things there with 51 seats, 45 seats for the republicans and two purple seats there that go to independents. they in all likelihood will caucus for the democrats to give the democrats right now at least 53 seats in voting terms. let's look at races too close to call right now. late into the night or early into the morning depending how you look at it, montana, john tester and the congressman

there, danny weiburg chlgs and in north dakota, rick burg there against his rival, that race is too close to call. the races from missouri and indiana, if democrats won. claire mccaskill, joe donnelly, they both made controversial comments about rape and lost. in massachusetts the heavyweight of this campaign, elizabeth warren has been elected, the first female senator from the bay state of massachusetts defeating scott brown. one other history-making race to tell you about in the state of wisconsin, it was tammy baldwin beating the former governor tommy thompson. kenny baldwin becoming the first openly gay member of the united states senate. the asian markets are now closed and the london markets are now opening. let's get to christine romans with a look at how the markets are reacting.

>> first let's look at asia that closed mixed watching the status quo. you have a u.s. president that is the same u.s. president and then you have a house and a senate of different parties. asian markets closing slightly mixed. your mean markets are up slightly and the stock index futures in the u.s., this is what we are watching heading to the opening bell at 9:30 eastern. stocks u.s. futures are up ever so slightly. what the signal is that the markets want to see now is progress on fiscal cliff. that is the most important thing next for markets to see. you would have seen probably a rally if mitt romney had won. wall street loved mitt romney and wanted him to be the president, but they thought barack obama would be. no uncertainty there. barack obama will have a second term. >> we'll talk about the fiscal cliff in just a moment. we are back in a moment.

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all right. we'll start with market reaction and the impending fiscal cliff. how is it looking? >> the marketing are looking okay. there was a sell-off of the international markets because they were the only ones open as it became clear that barack obama was going to win. there were a lot of people who preferred mitt romney and thought he was more business-friendly. the markets get over this with a much bigger issue, that's the fiscal cliff. that is stopping them from hiring and stopping them from making decisions. what this is going to take on congress' part and the president's part in the lame duck session is going to be some intestinal fortitude, mathematics and the part that you have to come to a deal. >> the president, who was just not working before he got

elected -- >> i think the president was able to say, i got things done. they gave him a pass. americans chose barack obama but he owned some responsibility for the fact that nothing got done. congress has 80%, but barack obama has to say this has not worked the last four years. getting the nation's fiscal house in order has not worked. >> we just can't go over the fiscal cliff. they all know that. so now it will be who gives up less and doesn't look like they are giving something up. you have to convince house republicans they will not suffer politically for raising taxes and they have to convince democrats to cut important programs. >> they signed the stupid deal with grover norquist and are held to it. congressional republicans have to say to grover, get out of our way. we get it, generally speaking we don't want to raise taxes on people, generally speaking we get lower taxes. >> those who signed the agreement will never say that. >> then everything has to be put on them. then it doesn't become the

president's problem, it's congress's problem. >> so then how is it resolved? >> they have to compromise. it is -- if you ask voters as in the exit polls, they separated these out. this is a little misleading, but by 53 to 38 people, making sure i have that right, those people said the economy is a bigger problem than the deficit. but right now people actually, i think what they would rather have is a jobs bill. i'm a political guy, not an accountant, but the political growth to make is lots of roads and bridges because republicans use them too. and they create jobs in republican states and democratic states, but a ten-year commitment along with simpson-boles could pay down the deficit. >> you are shaking your head no. >> this is how people think if they don't think like

republicans. >> praise the lord! praise the lord! >> the problem with what paul is saying is we are going to raise your taxes so we can spend more money aboard government spending. the only way you'll get republicans to go along with a tax increase, which is almost impossible to do it if they convince all goes to reducing the deficit, but what paul is saying we need to spend more. if you agree to spend more, we want you to raise taxes. that's not a deal for republicans. >> how are you going to get the republicans to spin, spin, spin bush -- >> rowland, how much did you spend, spend, on stimulus that failed, failed, failed? >> hold on. first of all, as a family -- >> one at a time. >> one second. i'm asking a legitimate question. first, i'm asking when you talk about spend, spend, spend, a

fact is a fact. when i'm saying we talk about the bush tax cuts as well, if you extend those, those also contribute to the deficit. as some point out, which is true -- >> but the president wants to extend all of them. the president wants to spend $4 trillion -- >> i have an idea that could work for everybody. the problem with stimulus is you're not correct, ari, that it didn't work. it worked just not as effectively as everyone wanted it to work. but as paul said, we do need infrastructure. we know we ran sort of a "d" in the world on pretty much everything, transportation, water, internet, things like that. what if it were an infrastructure bank, which is an idea that republicans would support. there would be some government money in it, but it is almost like seed money, a portion, and we have really fixed up where it wouldn't be like stimulus with weird assignments for money and you don't know what they are doing. real jobs for real infrastructure -- >> you better shovel those jobs.

>> the private sector would invest in and profit from these -- >> this was in president obama's jobs bill which didn't get passed. he didn't talk about it much in the campaign. we talk about it more than he does. this could be really bipartisan and really work. >> chicago has one. the major of chicago has one now, it is new, but it is working. i believe it will work. nancy pelosi called for this years ago. it is actually -- it should be bipartisan. >> let's listen to this conversation. how do we reduce the deficit? by spending more. so you're not talking about the entitlement reform. you're talking about everything else. you haven't talked about obama care -- >> maybe it is some kind of combination. >> medicare, medicaid, defense. the whole conversation is how do you spend more to save less. >> president obama won the election, but what happens in the next four years? how will the president lead the divided congress? you can get a little taste of it

right here. and they had such a contentious campaign. we'll chat with the panel about that straight ahead. >> yea! energy is being produced to power our lives. while energy development comes with some risk, north america's natural gas producers are committed to safely and responsibly providing generations of cleaner-burning energy for our country, drilling thousands of feet below fresh water sources within self-contained well systems. and, using state-of-the-art monitoring technologies, rigorous practices help ensure our operations are safe and clean for our communities and the environment. we're america's natural gas.

♪ that's what the celebration looked like this morning. that was president obama and vice president joe biden and their respective wives next to them. we welcome our viewers in the united states and around the world as well. i'm soledad o'brien.

president obama has won a second term. he's the winner. take a look at the chart, you can see we are picking president obama, now re-elected president, but congress is divided with the republicans keeping control of the house, the democrat does the same in the senate. it was an electrified crowd during his speech. take a listen. >> i am hopeful tonight because i have seen the spirit at work in america. i have seen it in the family business whose owners would rather cut their own pay than layoff their own neighbors. and the workers who would cut back their hours rather than see a friend lose the job. i have seen it in the soldiers who reenlist after losing a limb. and in those s.e.a.l.s. who charged up the stairs in darkness and danger because they knew there was a buddy behind them watching their back.

[ applause ] i have seen it on the shores of new jersey and new york where leaders from every party and level of government have swept aside their differences to help a community rebuild from the wreckage of a terrible storm. [ cheers and applause ] and i saw just the other day, in menner, ohio, where a father told the story of his 8-year-old daughter whose long battle with leukemia nearly cost their family everything had it not been for health care reform passing just a few months before the insurance company was about to stop paying for her health care. [ applause ] i had an opportunity not to just talk to the father but to meet

this incredible daughter of his. and when he spoke to the crowd listening to that father's story, every parent in that room had tears in their eyes. because we knew then the little girl could be our own. and i know that every american wants her future to be just as bright. that's who we are. that's the country i'm so proud to lead as your president. [ cheers and applause ] and tonight, despite all the hardship we have been through, despite all the frustrations of washington, i've never been more hopeful about our future. i have never been more hopeful about america, and i ask you to

sustain that hope. i'm not talking about vying optimism, the kind that looks at the road blocks that stand in our path, i'm not talking about the wishful idealism that allows us to sit to top sidelines or shirk from a fight. i have always believed that hope is that stubborn thing inside of us that insists, despite all the evidence to the contrary, that something better awaits us, so long as we have the courage to keep reaching, to keep working, to keep fighting. [ cheers and applause ] america, i believe we can build on the progress we have made and continue to fight for new jobs and new opportunity and new security for the middle class. i believe we can keep the promise of our founding, the idea that if you're willing to

work hard, it doesn't matter who you are or where you come from or what you look like or where you love. it doesn't matter whether you are black or white or hispanic or asian ornative american or young or old or rich or poor, abled, disabled, gay or straight, you can make it here in america if you are willing to try. i believe we can seize this future together because we are not as divided as our politics suggest. we are not as cynical as the pundits believe. we are greater than the sum of our individual ambitions. and we remain more than a collection of red states and blue states. we are and further will be the united states of america. and together with your help and god's grace we will continue our

journey forward and remind the world just why it is that we live in the greatest nation on earth. >> he says together we will move forward. well, what does that path really look like? let's go right back to our panel. ari fleisher, roland par minute, ali vels shrks i step aid way. john berman is stepping in. nice to have you all here. that's a trick. >> he just walked out. >> there he is. getting some breakfast. let's talk about the past -- >> just come on. he's cnn after dark. >> come on in here. let's talk about that path. first of all, when you look and assess the loss for republicans, some of the ways that democrats try to paint republicans really stuck. so how do you move forward for the next four years? >> if you are the republicans, they need to move to the middle. they need to moderate both on social issues and on economic issues. 54% of voters in the exit polls

thought mitt romney favored the rich. they did not think that was a good thing. obviously he hurt himself and the party hurt themselves with very severe things like banning funding for contraception, which was originally written into law. you need someone to modernize you to move you to the middle. reagan was great. but now you need someone to recreate it. >> there were some tonight. >> there were some who claimed that romney was not conservative enough. was that part of the problem? >> i think it was. i think it is not that he was not conservative enough because i think he evolved into being conservative enough. the problem i think mitt romney had was that he was not conservative enough in the eyes of republican base when he

started. and he had to overcompensate during the primaries and had a hard time playing the genie back in the bottle. he said good things during the primary that then made it difficult for him to shift to the center quickly right after that primary. >> the etch-a-sketch doesn't quite work so smoothly. >> not when you say it before you do it. >> romney was never a movement conservative, ideological conservative, this is why he said things like severe conservative. no conservative would describe themselves like that. that's why bush talked about compassionate conservativism, it creates growth and reduces poverty. i don't think that was -- mitt was a businessman and a problem solver, but the republican bench is fascinating. it is very deep. senator rubio, senator martinez, scott walker in wisconsin, chris christie is not a national candidate, he doesn't have a problem with the republicans because of his grace and the way he embraced president obama, but

the bench is still deep. and as people have really reformed, governors to change the fiscal policies of the states. >> as of five hours ago they are no longer sitting on the bench. i think the people got off the bench and started working in their own ways. >> soledad, the question you asked is how are you for it? i think how you afford it is the president is saying, look, we can spend the next four years like the last four years, where did that get us? that appeals to the common sensibilities of the republicans or democrats. when you heard him talk about taking the message across the country, that's actually going to be the message. he is going to appeal to the better half of voters by saying, i don't care if you didn't vote for me, but if we continue fighting the way we did, it is not going to work. >> but there are some issues that if you are conservative you will just not give up. as a passionate conservative, you are going to have a hard time when looking at re-election. that's going to be used against you. >> the national approval rate is

7%. >> a lot of people got re-elected by having an approval rate low. >> you raise the retirement age of medicare. >> that has to be on the table. >> let's look at chris christie for a moment. >> you should win for that very reason ari says she shouldn't. that embrace of president obama, that was the best thing. i was out in swing counties and states, that's the best thing anybody said happened in the last two weeks. >> what happens now at the develop? >> i have always said before that that he doesn't sell outside the northeast. i have never thought that chris christie stumping in iowa would be very effective in the iowa caucus. >> why? >> because he is too much northeast, that's why. >> very new jersey is what he's trying to say. calls it like he sees it. >> what are you talking about? >> that's a compliment. >> it plays well in texas. >> but the problem was, and i think he's going to have a problem now as he goes around and tries to get the republican base, the republican donors

outside of new york city to embrace his candidacy, in 2011, which is so far down the road, who knows what will happen, but there's a little feel of him going too far. >> we'll take a commercial break. coming up, we'll talk about the women who voted last night. that's straight ahead. ♪ [ woman ] it's 32 minutes to go time, and the candidate's speech is in pieces all over the district. the writer's desktop and the coordinator's phone are working on a joke with local color. the secure cloud just received a revised intro from the strategist's tablet. and while i make my way into the venue,

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our economy is recovering. a decade of war is ending. a long campaign is now over. [ applause ] and whether i earned your vote or not, i have listened to you. i have learned from you. and you have made me a better president. >> welcome back, everybody. you just heard president obama, the victor last night, talking about his victory and also talking about the path ahead. i want to take a look now at the exit polls. really the path to how he won. christine romans is here with a look at that. all right. why he won and how he won it has so much to do with this coalition, the so-call odd obama

coalition in some ways he was able to maintain and in other ways he was able to grow. christine, let's start off by talking about women. >> we'll talk about how he fared with the important demographic. this is breakdown by gender nationwide 2012, men 47%, 53% of women supported barack obama. by 11 points. when you compare that to last time around -- >> i think it was about the same as last time. >> so he's building on that part. let's move into the rest of this. by age, this is important. the president did well with young people. 19% of voters were between the ages of 18 and 29. 60% of them voted for the president. so young voters preferred the president. 30 to 44-year-olds, 52%. still a wide margin that is narrowing. then when you get to this age group, 45 to 64, 51% for mitt romney, 47% for barack obama. down to 65 and older, a preference for mitt romney. >> this is a group that a

arifleicher says the republicans are doing well with. >> this is an important part of the president's coalition. 72% of voters were white. last time around it was 74%. >> it drops every election. >> it drops every election but they preferred mitt romney by a 20-point margin. the coalition is how he pulled it off with a good turnout of african-americans, 13%. >> a lot of people didn't think he would equal that number. >> for the first time the latino vote is in double digits 10,% of the public voting latino. 71% for the president. this is a problem for the republican party. 27% of latinos voted for mitt romney. that's something they have to work on. and finally, one more for you here when talking about a latino vote, we asked people in the exit polling what most illegal immigrants working in the u.s. should be offered legal status

or deported, 65% said they should be offered legal status. of those by a two to one margin almost they said barack obama was their choice for president. >> 65%. that's a high number. >> that is a high number, absolutely. >> and that may have been the secret sauce the president used to increase his vote totals with latino voters in america. christine romans, thank you very much. thank you. let's get our panel to weigh in on that and specifically that very number. that was an interesting nugget coming out of the exit polls where people overwhelmingly want a path to citizen ship or a solution to the immigration problem in this country. >> the way it was asked i would have predicted it co tom out more negative because they used the phrase "illegal immigrant." that's a negative connotation instead of undocumented residents. >> it was not couched as sometimes they are in these questions. >> it was not politically correct. when you ask it in a tough, negative way to describe these

people, you still get 65 to 28. >> that time it was asked, they did use the term illegal, but they also use the term legal status. they did not use the term amnesty or path to citizenship. >> chance for legal status. >> wait a minute. there's also a choice. illegal immigrants are working in the united states and they are offered a chance to apply for legal status or be deported. there's no compromise. >> it sounds like pack or be deported. >> people are not saying we are going to deport -- >> 12 hours ago mitt romney was on deportation. >> you know where i'm with on this. i'm with george bush with a compromise in the middle. but this question is a stark question when offered to apply for illegal status or be deported. >> it is called reality. at some point americans are

saying we have to deal with the problem. the exit polls are saying we are giving folks the idea of how we need to deal with it. political leaders, though, again for partisan reasons, don't want to confront the hard choices. this is where i've been saying the president has to go big and bold the next four years. whether we talk about the fiscal cliff, the deficit, whether we are talking about illegal immigration, we have to go big and be bold and he's going to have to challenge people in his party and the republican party to say, for the good of this country, we have to deal with it because we cannot continue 12 million -- >> let me read you this exit poll. should same sex marriages be legal in your state? 49% said yes. 46% said no. just a slight victory for yes, but that's a trend -- five years ago we would have seen that trend. >> first of all, folks who live in gay marriage are 0 for 32. you saw two states tonight and

one state chose not to overturn. so that shows you that supporters of same sex marriage are happy with a victory. that was a huge deal being 0 for 32. now all of a sudden you'll see other states go back to deal with the issue, but what the polling also shows is that we are talking about what is a state issue. president obama came up with same sex marriage in may. he said it should be left up to the states. the supreme court still is going to rule on it because you still have the problem where in some states it is legal, some states it is not. i think you need to go before the supreme court and they will eventually rule on it. >> i think it reflects the generational shift. >> the poll generationally shows more support when you're younger, less support when you're older. >> i think the time has come, but we are not come to the time. but the time is coming, the shift is going. >> what time is it? >> you cannot be -- >> that's a whole different story.

>> i couldn't pass that one up. >> you can't defend marriage by being against marriage. you can't be against love. it's something that is about state rights, it is about respect, it's about freedom, above, individual choices. >> it is not necessarily what republicans like to talk about, unfortunately, and that was reflected in tonight's results. still to come this morning, we'll talk more about asian markets reacting to president obama's reacti-electionre-elect. we'll go live to hong kong next. hmm, it says here that cheerios helps lower cholesterol as part of a heart healthy diet. that's true. ...but you still have to go to the gym. ♪ the one and only, cheerios

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♪ welcome back.

status quo here in washington as president obama has been re-elected. he'll be president for another four years, but we could be looking at gridlock as the republicans control the house of representatives and right now we say the democrats will still rule the senate. so how is the world reacting to all this? of course, elections don't just matter in america but they matter all over the world. i'm joined by andrew stevens in hong kong. andrew, what are the markets saying about the election here? >> well, the immediate reaction was positive. there's a bit of a relief. it was a short-term way to describe this, there was a short-term gridlock. this is leading up to when cnn started projected that obama could keep the presidency. and we saw a big pop here around lunchtime that went from a third of 1% to up over 10%. not huge pop, but that was repeated pretty much everywhere.

all these markets in japan and shanghai were down considerably more until we got news it looked to be the re-election. so the status quo as you say has been reestablished, but there's a huge but. this is the fiscal cliff, which was the big shout-out behind the election as far as the financial markets are concerned and will only become a bigger problem until it is actually dealt with by a divided congress. the fiscal cliff, of course, is where we get the automatic kicking in of tax rises and spending cuts, equally about $600 billion, which has the potential, if it actually happens, to knock the biggest economy back into recession. the initial relief was relief on uncertainty out of the way with the status quo maintained. >> why did they go up at all if they are glad the election is over and there's no recount and

more chaos? >> absolutely. markets as we know it is an old saying and true saying, they hate the uncertainty side of that. there's also the other side of it which is had mitt romney particularly in this part of the world, if he carried through the with the election plate to label china as a current manipulator on day one, that in itself was not necessarily a game-changer, but considering we have also got a new leadership coming into china, which we are going to hear about in the next week or so, it could have changed the relationship quite significantly for the worse. there was talk before this election result that china and the u.s. could get into some sort of trade war which could be a disaster for the global economy. like i said, we got the status quo. we know the investment community at least understands where obama has been going. yes, we have this gridlock, but very few people i talked to, at least in this part of the world, are going to say that they think

we'll fall off the cliff. >> hang on, ali is itching to get into the action here. >> my friend, co anchor on cnn international, andrew, we have 24 hours away to the signing of new leaders in china. they are going to forget about all the nasty stuff said in the debates. mitt romney was nastier to china, but barack obama and mitt romney in the last debate were trying to outdo each other on who could be tougher on china. clearly the chinese regime gets that was just talk and will get down to business. >> absolutely, ali. they understand the u.s. election cycle as they are pragmatic people. the new leadership is widely regarded in china. they are going to continue the policies. as you all know, a very long-term view. we have seen the chinese economy awakening over the past year or so as it seems to be flattening out now. the new leadership of this to

pick up a bit, the fed is going to introduce a couple goodies to help things happen. we'll find out the new leadership? a week or so from now. and they get what happens in the u.s. political cycle. >> andrew stevens, thank you so much. our live coverage and selection continues right now. good morning. we want to welcome the viewers around the united states and the world. i'm soledad o'brien. president obama has been re-elected. republicans keep the house, democrats keep the senate. what will that mean for gridlock moving forward? we'll talk about that this morning. here's what president obama said in his victory speech early this morning. >> america, i believe we can build on the progress we have made and continue to fight for new jobs and new opportunity and new security for the middle class. i believe we can keep the